Japanese facing up to changing times

By Michiko Yamada, Mainichi Shimbun, Wednesday 14
July 1999

Perhaps it's not surprising, considering the nation's rapid
development over the past 100 years, but Japan is showing a different
face to the world than it was at the start of the 20th
Century—literally.

Experts suggest that the average Japanese face has undergone
fundamental changes this century as the nation metamorphosed from
being a basically feudal society into a modern, industrial state.

They argue that the dumpy, frumpy and grumpy faces of yesteryear have
given way to mugs that're thinner, kinder and gentler.

Putting it nicely, I suppose you could say the average face of a
politician in the Meiji Era (1868-1912) was ‘spirited.’ If
you want to be nasty, you could say it was ‘stern,’
says Hiroshi Harashima, a Tokyo University professor and director at
the Japan Academy of Facial Studies.

Harashima creates computer images that compare the average face now
with that of 100 years ago.

(The Meiji Era face) has a harshness that looks like it's
preparing to deal with troubled times, says Harashima.

I suppose that a current politician could be referred to as being
‘a decent sort of guy,’ or, if you want to put it badly,
‘spoiled.’

When it came to the face of the average celebrity, Harashima says the
generic puss of a Meiji Era superstar was likely to be largely
expressionless, oval-shaped and slant-eyed. A modern celebrity,
Harashima says, probably has a rounder face with larger eyes, but
otherwise no outstanding facial features.

The average face of both a politician or celebrity nowadays is
likely to be one that other people would warm to quickly, the
professor says.

Facial changes are mostly the result of chewing, according to Kazuro
Hanihara, a Tokyo University emeritus professor. Hanihara is renowned
for his theory that the Japanese are comprised of two
races—those descending from people in the Jomon Period (ca
10,000 BC to ca 300BC) who had always lived in Japan, and the others
preceded by people from the Yayoi Era (ca 300 BC to ca 300), who were
migrants from the Chinese mainland.

People nowadays are less likely to be buck-toothed, Hanihara
says. Noses are thinner and straighter. Chins have also become
sharper.

Hanihara says it was his studies of bodies found in the Kanto region
dating back to the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) that showed people now
are less likely to be buck-toothed.

Growth cells in bones are stimulated when the muscles surrounding
them are used and placed under stress, Hanihara says. If food
becomes softer, as it has in Japan, (facial) bones don't develop
properly.

Shigeru Saito, a former Kanagawa Dental College professor, agrees with
Hanihara that chewing plays an important role in shaping people's
faces.

Chewing doesn't only change the bone structure, it also
stimulates the brain's nerve cells and is of extreme
importance, Saito says.

Hanihara, though, says he doesn't exactly like all the changes
he's seeing.

Modern faces may make some people happy because they're shaped
more like a Westerner's. But they're more likely to cause
teeth to grow crooked and, from the point of view of health, that
isn't a development you can really welcome, he says. The
drastic changes that have arisen in people's faces since the Meiji
Era have destroyed the harmony between people's bodies and their
civilization.

It seems much of the changes that have arisen in Japanese faces can be
attributed to the massive spurt in average growth among the populace
this century. Ministry of Education figures show that the average
20-year-old male in 1900 was 160.9 centimeters, but by 1997 that had
risen to 170.7 centimeters. Women's average growth was even
faster, skyrocketing from 147.9 centimeters to 159 centimeters over
the same period.

Kumi Ashizawa, a professor at Otsuma Women's University, says that
growth has given Japan a new face.

As far as average height increases go, Japan is in line with all
other advanced, industrialized nations. But Japan's case has been
particularly notable since the end of World War II, she says.

But unlike weight, which can have unlimited increases, genes
regulate how tall people can become. During the war, growth was
limited, but with the improvement of people's diets in the postwar
era, growth has spurted astoundingly.

People's bodies grow faster than their heads. Therefore, as
Japanese have become taller, their faces have changed, too. And even
though many people apparently say that increases in average growth are
likely to become smaller, there's no doubt that the nation is
presenting a different face to the world than the one it was showing
at the dawn of the century.